


Upgrade

by psyraah



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragon Riders, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 18:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7585273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psyraah/pseuds/psyraah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like so many other things, what's between them needs a bit of tinkering before it can run smoothly...or well, run at all. </p><p>It'd be nice if they had an instruction manual too, but Ed figures they can work it out. </p><p>[RoyEd week 2016 Day 1: Intricate Machinery]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Upgrade

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tinyalchemist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyalchemist/gifts).



> Happiest of birthdays (or well, other days) to the [sweetest tiniest bean](http://www.edwardsroy.tumblr.com). Part of her [Dragon Riders AU](http://edwardsroy.tumblr.com/post/143484286220/oh-look-another-au-dragon-rider-ed-is-in) (I'm sorry if I butchered anything) where Ed fights/tames/hangs out with dragons and Roy makes his automail.
> 
> SORRY ITS SO LATE

_It wasn’t clear who started the kiss._

_They had been so close, after all, that it barely even took that little dip of one’s head, or lifting of the other’s, to bring their lips together._

_And it was soft, and sweet, then a little rough, but quite perfect, just for a moment._

_It wasn’t clear who started the kiss, but Roy was the first to startle with realisation—who and when and what—and draw back._

_Then a spluttered apology, the hurried closing of the casing on Ed’s arm, and Ed slid off the examination table and was all but shoved out of the workshop. Standing wide-eyed and disbelieving, he stared at the oaken door that shut firmly in his face._

_“Shit,” he said._

_On the other side of the door, Roy did the same._

* * *

This room was awfully familiar.

The walls were lined with bookshelves, stuffed to the brim with books on automail, or dragons, or those little adventure stories Roy liked so much. Ed himself didn’t understand them, but he supposed he could give the man some kind of idiocy to relax with.

Especially, he thought with a _tiny_ pang of guilt, as Ed was often the one who made Roy Mustang stress out, a _lot_.

Ed chewed his lip, and resisted the urge to swing his flesh leg out of sheer boredom. His metal one was currently being held firmly in one hand by Roy as he tinkered, brow furrowed just the tiniest bit, but otherwise expression blank. And after so many years of knowing the man, Ed knew what _that_ meant: Roy was pissed.

But, really, it wasn’t _that_ bad.

Sure, his leg seemed to have just stopped working out of nowhere, but Roy was fixing that up quick, wasn’t he?

And _maybe_ his arm was kinda…melted. But really, when you squared off with a dragon, there were worse outcomes.

Though, by the looks of things, not according to Roy.

“Leg’s done,” he said curtly, rising from where he was crouched in front of Ed, who was seated on the bed. “I’ll have the arm done in two days. Come collect it then.” He stood so quickly Ed almost cricked his neck as he tried to keep his eyes on Roy’s face, to see what was written there, but Roy turned to stride back to his desk.

Brooding, Ed thought, almost fondly. Always brooding, probably over some weird Roy reason. “So,” he said conversationally, “why’re you pissed this time?”

Roy’s head whipped around, and his fists clenched. “I’m sorry?” he said, tone icy, and eyes flashing.

“Get any angrier and you’ll be smoking like a dragon,” Ed said. “What are you all worked up about?”

“What am—oh, what could it possible be, Ed?” Roy snarled. “You go out, get your arm _melted_ off, and barely make it back alive, and you ask _why_ I’m upset?”

“Nah, you’re usually pissy after I screw up, but usually it’s got more insults and less silence.”

Ed thought he saw a vein throb.

Roy did always hate to be deciphered so easily.

And of course, his solution was to not look at Ed, turning back to his desk so he could start clearing it with stiff, precise movements.

“Excuse me if I don’t look forward to two more days of ridiculous work to replace an arm that you got fitted with not two months ago,” he muttered. “All these stupid stunts you pull, and the _dragons_ , and who knows what else. Seriously, would it kill you—”

Roy froze, and his fury stilled. “Never mind.”

Ed resisted the urge to sigh, both out of frustration about the man before him, and because he felt as though he was missing a part of the puzzle. Sure, Roy was always a little edgy after Ed had a close shave, but like he’d said before, that usually resulted in snarky comments that gave way to a fond smile and Roy knocking his knuckles gently against Ed’s head. This was different. This was Roy getting lost in his head, turning corner after corner in the dark recesses of his mind, moving further and further away from Ed. There was something here—or maybe a couple of somethings—that Ed hadn’t quite figured out yet.

Seeing as prodding and annoying him didn’t seem to be working, Ed thought he’d try for something softer.

Hopping to his feet, Ed padded over to Roy, the _pap-thunk_ rhythm sounding through the room. Uncertain, Ed propped himself up on the desk, before he ducked his head to study Roy a little. The other man had gone still, head bowed, staring resolutely at the diagrams and books scattered across his desk.

“Roy, I’m okay,” Ed said. “You patch me up fine, yeah?”

Roy seemed to crumple, his hands clenched tight around the wood of his desk, head dropping as though his neck couldn’t support it any longer. His eyes were clenched shut. “Just…be more careful next time.” His voice was hoarse, and it was only because it was night, and there was none of the hustle and bustle of the town below to drift up through Roy’s window, that he heard Roy’s ragged breathing faint in the air. “Please.”

Then, his hand shifted to settle on Ed’s own, and squeezed.

Ed’s heart shot right out of his chest cavity.

“All right, what is this then?” he asked, and this time when Roy went to retreat, Ed grabbed hold of his hand held firm. Now, Roy was looking at him, teeth bared and jaw tense.

“What do you mean?” he asked, though the protest was weak.

Ed held on resolutely when Roy tried to tug his hand away. “You know what I mean, or do all your appointments come with extra kissing now?”

“What? No!”

“Then what is this?”

Of all the things Ed had seen Roy go through, he had only ever truly seen the man scared a few times. So it took him a moment to recognise the expression, how Roy kept his mouth very deliberately closed but his throat bobbed as he swallowed, and how his eyes kept flicking to and from Ed’s, as though he couldn’t bear to look at him, but also terrified he’d disappear.

“I shouldn’t have,” Roy said eventually, and Ed…well, Ed had been expecting it. A little bit, but hope was a hard thing to fight. Especially when Roy had been so…Roy, throughout everything. Warm, fond, one of Ed’s closest friends, and the damn _kiss_.

So the words did twist a little in Ed’s heart, and he felt his chest constrict, _painfully_. Now he let Roy’s fingers slip away from his own. If the man didn’t want to be tethered, then Ed wouldn’t hold him down. “I just wanted to...check. But it’s fine; we tried it, it didn’t work, well, I can live with that.” Or he’d pretend he could. “I’m still…we can still be friends, and I’ll scream at you, and you’ll yell at me for screwing up my automail, and we can do what we always did.” Which, for the past few years, had been a lot of Ed pining, and his heart hammering whenever Roy got anywhere near him (well, really, who was he kidding? His heart pounded whenever he so much as _saw_ Mustang). Which happened a _lot_ , seeing as the man was his mechanic. But he could do that.

It was fine.

He’d lived through worse.

Silence stretched between the two of them, taut as a wire, Roy still with his jaw clenched tight and pain in his eyes. When he eventually spoke, it was almost a whisper.

“It wasn’t you,” he said, soft.

The knife only twisted further, spreading salt in the wound. Seriously? Ed huffed out breath. “You don’t have to do the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ routine, I’m _fine_ , seriously Roy—”

“No.” The denial was louder this time, and Roy’s hand clenched around the bottom of his jacket. “That’s not—that’s not what I meant.” Long fingers—strong and sure, Ed knew—yanked at dark hair, and Roy let out a shaky breath. “It wasn’t you who screwed up your leg.”

Ed blinked. “What?”

“I…” Roy’s eyes were trained on Ed’s own, teeth gritted and looking so _lost_ , as though looking at Ed caused him pain. “I fucked it up,” he said, eyes still not leaving Ed’s. “After the…kiss, I—I got distracted, and I left—I left parts out. _I_ messed up.”

“Oh.” Well, that certainly explained why his leg had decided to cark it. And why Roy was acting all weird guilty introspective.

But still, he was in one piece, so everything was fine, really.

“So, it definitely is _not_ you, Ed.” Roy swallowed, and he took a step back, which _no_ , he wasn’t meant to be backing away. Not when Ed wanted him closer, not when Ed wanted to just draw the man close to get that horrible expression off his face and cuff him over the head to tell him to lose the guilt complex thing _right now_.

And maybe kiss him a bit.

(A lot.)

“We can’t do this,” Roy continued. “Not while you’re a customer, and your safety depends on how well I do my work. I can’t— _you_ can’t afford for me to be distracted. So please, let’s just—”

Wait.

Ed’s mind’s eye squinted suspiciously. That didn’t sound like rejection, or not outright.

Only one way to know.

“Stop talkin’ for just a moment,” Ed said, before Roy could keep going on with his laundry list of Bad Things and Sucky Reasons.

But of course, the man never listened. “Ed, really—”

“No, hush.” Ed stepped forward and placed a single finger across Roy’s lips.

And _that_ shut him up, thank fuck.

A laugh tickled the back of Ed’s throat at how comical Roy looked, eyes wide at the gesture, lips parted a little ( _and soft_ ) against Ed’s finger. But he managed to swallow it down, because that tiny bit of fear-hurt was still lingering in Roy’s eyes, written far too clearly across his face. “I just wanna know one thing.” He stepped a little closer, and dropped his hand so he could tug at his braid. This was it, wasn’t it? No more weird tension between the two of them, fond smiles that lasted a bit too long but then blatantly ignored, the argue-flirting that neither of them acknowledged, and the stupid roll of Ed’s heart whenever Roy got near. Although, if this went well, hopefully Ed would be able to keep that.

But it was all or nothing.

Ed had always been an ‘all’ kind of person.

“Do you _want_ to do this?” He gestured between the two of them. “Us?” he said, in case he hadn’t gotten the point across.

Roy’s teeth were clenched tight. “Edward, did you not listen to a _word_ I just said? That is entirely beside the point—”

“I was listening,” Ed interrupted. “But I think it’s the whole _fuckin_ ’ point.”

“No, I just told you that it would not be good for either of us if we were to do something while you’re still a customer—”

“I don’t care, just answer the damn question: do you want this or not?”

Roy was shaking now. “Ed…”

“If you don’t, I’ll leave you alone.” Ed swallowed. “But I thought—I was pretty damn sure I wasn’t the only one feeling this. So was I right, or not?”

Roy stared at him a moment longer, before his mouth curled into a weak smile. “Did you think that I’d kiss you if I didn’t want to?”

The dragon might as well have finished the job—the outcome was the same as Roy’s words, what with how Ed’s heart just _stopped_.

“I—” Ed opened his mouth. Shut it. Opened it again. “You mean that?” Well, he’d _suspected._ After all, like Roy said, kissing someone was a pretty dead giveaway that _maybe_ they were into you.

The weak smile curled into something stronger now, though still a little helpless. As though Roy couldn’t help himself. And damn if that wasn’t the cutest thing ever, that little crooked tilt of his mouth and how his eyes went all…sparkly.

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

Without waiting any longer, Ed surged forward, and fisted a hand in Roy’s collar. “Then what are we waitin’ for—”

“Whoa, Ed, wait.” Roy’s fingers wrapped around his own. Then serious, dark eyes looked at Ed, and Roy licked his lips (which wasn’t _fair_ , because Ed still wanted to kiss him and he was just interrupting it all). “Are _you_ sure?”

Ed rolled his eyes, and tried to step forward again, but Roy still held him back. “ _Duh_.”

“I meant what I said, about you distracting me,” Roy said softly. “I’m not sure we can afford that.”

“Sure we can.” Seeing as the man wouldn’t let Ed kiss him, Ed settled for leaning forward so he could press himself against Roy’s chest, the other man letting a little surprised noise. Ed could almost bury himself in this scent—the familiar smell of machine oil, the tang of steel, and something underneath which was sweet and clean that Ed had come to know as _Roy_. Their hands were sandwiched between them. In that position, the soft thud of Roy’s heart pulsed through Ed’s fingertips, and he could feel the warmth of Roy’s skin beneath his shirt. “If we actually…are a thing, then you wouldn’t be distracted by the fact that we aren’t anymore, right?”

Roy laughed gently, the sound floating somewhere above Ed’s head, and it had Ed’s own heart singing. “You’re not easy to ignore, Edward Elric.”

“Roy, you look after me fine.” His words were muffled in Roy’s shirt, but from the way Roy kinda…stopped breathing, Ed was pretty sure it came out loud and clear. “Okay? I know you do, even if you—or both of us, I guess—pretend that you don’t. Even if I whine at you, I know you’re lookin’ out for me, okay? Don’t think I didn’t notice that you made my leg longer when I grew that half inch—”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you did not grow at all.”

“—or that you worked your ass off figurin’ out how to make it so I could hold a pen in my right hand. I _notice_ , okay?” Now he lifted his head, and looked up at Roy. The bastard still had that same dumb, helpless expression on his face, and Ed _needed_ it gone. “You’ve been lookin’ out for me for _years_ , I figured you’re not gonna stop even if we end up…whatever.”

Roy wanted this, and he knew he wanted this. He just didn’t know that he knew yet. Or something. And Ed was going to convince his stupid, stubborn ass.

Or maybe it wouldn’t need that much convincing after all, because Roy relaxed—Ed could feel it, still pressed up against Roy’s chest—and lifted one hand to trail his fingers across Ed’s cheek. “I can’t afford to lose you,” he said quietly, lips barely moving. The words were carried on the barest breath to Ed’s ears, as though any whisper of weakness would be stolen by the universe to grind to nothingness. “But,” he continued, hesitant, “‘whatever’ sounds…nice.”

It took Ed a moment to figure out what that meant. Then he grinned, wide, and kinda idiotically. “Yeah?”

“Yes.” Then those beautiful, wonderful fingers—that had fixed Ed so many times before, patched him up, made him _better_ —trailed along his jawline, and pressed gently against his chin so Roy could lean down and kiss him.

It was gentle. Soft, and it was tender more than anything else. A taste of a promise, and of protection.

It was also over _way_ too quick, and Ed made a little noise of protest when Roy drew back. But then an arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer, and he stopped complaining.

(And if he leaned his head against Roy’s chest again, it was because it was more comfortable that way, and _not_ because the feeling of Roy pressed up against him made him feel safe and did funny things to his nerves.)

“We can ‘whatever’ later, though,” Roy said, tugging at Ed’s hair. “You’ve had a long day and need rest. I have two longer days ahead of me trying to get your arm all put together.”

Ed sighed. “I guess.”

“After all, I’m still your mechanic. And like I said, I wouldn’t want to be distracted.”

“Guess you still are.” He looked up at Roy, he was looking back at him…fondly. That was the word for it, and it made Ed’s heart flutter. “But can we do other…distracting things when you aren’t busy being my mechanic?”

Roy tilted his head, and his smile was warm. “I’d like that.”

Ed’s heart soared and he grinned back, because Roy Mustang was looking at him as though he’d flown on the back of a dragon to hang the stars in the sky, and Ed’s heart had never felt fuller.

“I’ll come back to distract you when you’re done mechanic-ing then.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Roy said, pressing one more kiss to the crown of Ed’s head.

It would be a change, a little tweaking of their foundations and what they were together. A little tinkering, some adjustments. But like all the little things that Roy had given him in the years they’d known each other, Ed knew that it could only be an upgrade.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos make me very happy :)


End file.
